Movie review: Food, Inc.

Wednesday

Jul 15, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 16, 2009 at 5:03 AM

I'd like to take this moment to sincerely thank my in-laws for their regular gift of grass-fed ground beef from an Ohio farm. After watching Food, Inc., it was the only consolation I could find in my kitchen.

I'd like to take this moment to sincerely thank my in-laws for their regular gift of grass-fed ground beef from an Ohio farm. After watching Food, Inc., it was the only consolation I could find in my kitchen.

Director Robert Kenner explores the ways in which our food supply is produced and processed, and finds a toxic stew of massive slaughterhouses controlled by a handful of mega-companies, systematic worker and animal abuse, and corporate infiltration of government regulatory agencies - an industry in which profit trumps safety, the natural order of the food chain and basic common sense.

There's a powerful urgency to Kenner's string of interviews and hidden-camera footage, which exposes practices that could give meat eaters serious pause before throwing another sausage on the grill. But this isn't a screed. Even when it's a horror show, the film has a certain style. Given the rise in bacteria-related food recalls, it's also obviously got right on its side.

As a result, Food, Inc. has the potential to reframe the issue of food safety in the same way that An Inconvenient Truth impacted awareness of global warming. Like that film, it literally hits you where you live.

The Ohio Environmental Council will host a sneak preview of the film at 9:30 p.m. tonight. On Wednesday, July 22, a panel discussion with local natural food experts will follow the 7:30 p.m. screening.